Background: To study the differences and usage of the color indexes in the quantitative image analysis on immunohistochemical staining of squamous cell lung carcinoma between moderate differentiation and poor differentiation.
Methods: S-P method was used in p53, PCNA and p16 immunohistochemical staining of squamous cell lung carcinoma. Quantitative image analysis was performed with Computer Assisted Pathological Image Analysis System.
Results: There was no well differentiation case of the 20 cases. Positive stain of p53 was observed in 6 cases in moderate differentiation group and 6 cases in poor differentiation group respectively. Positive PCNA stain existed in 7 cases in moderate differentiation group and 6 cases in poor differentiation group respectively. Five cases in moderate differentiation group and 6 cases in poor differentiation group had p16 expression deletion. The saturation of p53 staining was lower in moderate differentiation group (4.95%) than that in poor differentiation group (10.95%) (t=4.208,P=0.002). The saturation of PCNA staining was lower in moderate differentiation group (7.74%) than that in poor differentiation group (12.98%) (t=2.416,P=0.034). The hue of p16 staining was lower in moderate differentiation group (53.98⁰) than that in poor differentiation group (62.32⁰) (t=2.784,P=0.021).
Conclusions: The color indexes in the quantitative immunohistochemical image analysis may reflect the differentiation degree of squamous cell lung carcinoma.